1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading device for reading a document, a method for controlling the image reading device, and an image forming apparatus including the image reading device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The image reading device reads a document so as to generate image data. The image forming apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral, a copier, or a FAX apparatus may include a document feeding device for automatically and successively feeding document sheets to a document read position for the image reading device. However, blank image data may be generated in case where a blank sheet is inserted in the document sheets, or in case where a backside of a document sheet is read because the sheet is set upside down. The blank sheet has no significant information. Therefore, a job (such as printing or image data transmission) based on the blank sheet image data is wasteful. Therefore, there is an image reading device that removes blank sheet image data from image data obtained by reading. An example of this image reading device is described in Patent Document 1.
Specifically, Patent Document 1 describes an image reading device including a reading unit for reading an image of a document, a blank sheet determination unit for determining whether or not a document sheet is blank sheet based on image data read by the reading unit, and a deletion unit for deleting the image data read by the reading unit when it is determined that the document sheet is a blank sheet by the blank sheet determination unit.